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Review: Space exploration documentary ‘It’s Quieter in the Twilight’ is sometimes too quiet

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The space exploration documentary “It’s Quieter in the Twilight” has some of the right stuff. But for the average viewer, it may prove as slow-going as the last decade or so in the waning mission the film spotlights: the more than 45-year-old NASA-funded Voyager program .

First, a little history. In 1977, twin robotic spacecraft named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched to fly near the four outermost planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to gather valuable data and transmit it back to Earth. A reported 1,200 people initially worked on the captivating project, though in more recent years, as the probes entered interstellar space traveling beyond the solar system, only a dozen staffers have remained to manage and monitor the mission’s imminent end.

These deeply dedicated souls, who have postponed retirement to guide these famed if largely forgotten spacecraft through their “twilight” years, are the focus of director Billy Miossi’s meditative, alternatively arcane and awe-inspiring look at NASA’s longest-running mission.

The enduring Voyager team profiled here includes project manager Suzy Dodd; engineers Enrique Medina, Fernando Peralta, Sun Kang Matsumoto and Todd Barber; missions operations manager Jefferson Hall; technical consultant Chris Jones (he left the mission in 2021); and project scientist Ed Stone, who retired last year at 86 after a half-century of service. They receive their close-ups as they work out of a nondescript office park in Altadena, Calif., which proves a less-than-thrilling background for much of the film. A move to NASA’s nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory later occurs following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Unfortunately, while the intellect of Voyager’s passionate staff is impressive, they’re not always the most scintillating bunch; their often highly technical discussions can make for some dry viewing. In addition, these folks’ eclectic histories, which Miossi presents via one-on-one interviews and personal archival visuals, although enlightening in a how-did-they-get-here sense (Medina, Peralta and Matsumoto grew up in, respectively, Mexico, Colombia and South Korea), can feel a bit pro forma. There are several more emotional moments, though, that bring us closer to our subjects.

The doc, shot from 2019 to 2021, is more successful when it reminds us of the dazzling scope of the Voyager mission, especially in its early days when it fed the public’s appetite for real-life outer space adventure in the biggest way since the 1969 moon landing.

Voyager-generated photos of such spectacular sights as the rings of Saturn and the volcanoes on Io (a moon of Jupiter) are a vivid inclusion as well.

It’s also cool to contemplate some of the more astonishing facts and figures that are peppered in here. Not the least of these is that the Voyagers have flown as far as a record 14 billion miles from Earth. That’s billion with a B. Or, if you prefer, they are now three times farther from the sun than our former ninth planet, Pluto.

Miossi also attempts to add some ticking-clock action to the proceedings as he tracks several downturns in the spacecraft’s power and capacity to effectively transmit data. At one point, the team must rescue Voyager 2 from potential demise when a power glitch shuts down its instruments. That commands are sent to control the compromised probe using mid-1970s technology adds to the movie’s low-key tension.

Further complicating matters, there can be a lag time of 16 to 20 hours for the spacecraft’s signals to reach Earth. Plus, only one majestic antenna dish, located in Canberra, Australia, can interface with the Voyagers, which are solely visible from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere — and that satellite is shutting down for maintenance. As the film makes clear, it’s miraculous that this NASA enterprise is still operational.

To that end, the Voyager team hopes the ailing spacecraft can survive until 2027 so they can celebrate the mission’s 50th anniversary. For now, though, they have this earnest, reflective film to mark their life’s work and help keep Voyager alive in the mind of its older — and maybe now newer — fans.

'It’s Quieter in the Twilight'

Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes Playing: Starts May 19, Laemmle NoHo 7, North Hollywood; also on VOD

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13.7 Cosmos & Culture

To infinity and beyond: celebrating 40 years of the voyager mission.

Marcelo Gleiser

This has been quite a space week for Americans.

After Monday's stunning solar eclipse, Wednesday night PBS will air its two-hour documentary film about the two Voyager missions, launched 40 years ago. The Farthest: Voyager In Space , celebrates a technological and intellectual achievement rarely matched in history. Two small, nuclear-powered spacecraft have traveled farther than any other man-made machine and have forever changed our views of the solar system — and our place in it.

Using period music that includes Pink Floyd, real data from the missions, and amazing computer animations of the spacecraft zooming through space, the film tells the story of the many unparalleled scientific achievements of this very successful and still ongoing space mission. These include Voyager 2's fly-by of the outer planets Uranus and Neptune, and Voyager 1's role as the first craft to leave the confines of the solar system, launching humanity into the interstellar age.

The film also features interviews with many of the original and current mission team — the scientists and engineers that made the mission possible and are still working on it, collecting data and sending commands to the spacecraft. Consider that the total computing power of the Voyager spacecraft is less than that of a modern smart phone.

We now live in the era of exoplanetary astronomy, the search for other planets circling distant stars, hoping that we will find some that resemble our own. The Voyager mission took some of the first steps in this direction in our own solar system, sending images of our distant neighbors and their moons, strange worlds that sparked the imagination of millions and inspired a whole generation of space scientists and astronomers.

Onboard the spacecraft is the famous Golden Record , that carries greetings and samples of our music, cultural and scientific creations, and genetic makeup to potential intelligences out there that may encounter the spacecraft one day. Even if the chances of an actual encounter are rather slim, it was the astronomer Carl Sagan's genius to come up with this idea, an icon that brings together what we have in common and unites us as a species.

Sagan was also the one who insisted that Voyager 1 turn its camera toward Earth as it flew by Saturn, registering the smallness of our world against the vastness of space, the "pale blue dot" picture. The movie features Sagan's eloquent lines, as he reflected upon our planet, on which "everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives ... on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

From our current perspective of an overpopulated world threatened by rampant abuse and neglect, these are lines we should all be taking very seriously. For despite all the relevance to go out and explore the endless frontier, one of the essential messages of the Voyager mission — and of modern exoplanet exploration — is how precious and rare our own world is, an oasis for life in a hostile cosmos.

Marcelo Gleiser is a theoretical physicist and writer — and a professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is the director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth, co-founder of 13.7 and an active promoter of science to the general public. His latest book is The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher's Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything . You can keep up with Marcelo on Facebook and Twitter: @mgleiser

'The Farthest' Returns for an Encore in November on PBS

Update: "The Farthest" rebroadcast air date has been moved to Nov. 15, rather than tonight.

"The Farthest," an amusing and inspiring new documentary about the farthest-traveling spacecraft ever launched, will return to PBS Nov. 15 for a national encore. So, if you haven't had a chance to check it out, prepare to tune in then at 10 p.m. EDT/9 p.m. CDT.

The documentary premiered on PBS  on Aug. 23, three days after the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Voyager mission. NASA launched two Voyager probes: Voyager 2 launched first, on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched about two weeks later, on Sept. 5, 1977.

Now NASA's oldest operational spacecraft, the twin space probes paved the way for the future of solar system exploration, voyaging where no spacecraft has ever gone before. [ 40 Photos from NASA's Epic 'Grand Tour' Mission ]

The twin probes  set out to explore all the giant outer planets of the solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Now, Voyager 1 is traveling through interstellar space, and Voyager 2 is on its way out of the solar system. 

The PBS documentary offers an inside look at some of the colorful characters who played roles in the mission and some of the most epic behind-the-scenes stories from the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory  (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

At a screening of the documentary at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Aug. 9, Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist who worked on the Voyager imaging team, recalled what it was like to spend multiple sleepless nights at JPL. Porco and her team would stay up anxiously awaiting planetary flybys and scrambling to sift through all the photos of the planets and their moons the probes sent back.

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Porco recalled the day that the Voyager team discovered liquid nitrogen on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan , with scientists frantically running around the building to spread the news. "This notion that there could be liquid nitrogen on the surface of Titan, something out of a science fiction movie, spread like wildfire through the hallways and offices of Building 264, which was where everybody was gathered during these flybys.

"During that whole episode, I felt that all of Building 264 became the starship Enterprise," Porco said, "and we had just come upon this alien world, and we were reading the signals from it, and we were hovering over it just like they do on 'Star Trek.'"

All that passion and enthusiasm is overwhelmingly evident in "The Farthest," which features interviews with many of the key players in the Voyager mission. Scientists with quirky personalities recall some of the most exciting, emotional and hilarious moments of the mission. Almost everyone interviewed in the film tears up when they talk about what the Voyager probes mean to them.

"The Farthest" is bound to bring a smile to your face, and possibly a few tears. At the very least, it's guaranteed to teach you about one of humanity's greatest achievements in exploration while keeping you entertained.  

Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her @hannekescience . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook   and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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The farthest: voyager in space, common sense media reviewers.

Fascinating docu on the history and discoveries of Voyager.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The advances and benefits of math and science are

The curiosity and insight of the scientists behind

Brief shot of a photograph of a scientist smoking

Parents need to know that The Farthest: Voyager in Space is a 2017 documentary about the Voyager space program on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. For those old enough to remember Voyager 1 and 2 and the stunning photographs they sent back to Earth of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, this is a…

Positive Messages

The advances and benefits of math and science are put on full display when the scientists involved with the Voyager space program discuss goals, approach, and scientific discovery as the two Voyager spacecraft made startling new discoveries about the outer planets of our solar system.

Positive Role Models

The curiosity and insight of the scientists behind the Voyager space program reveal the vast possibilities inherent in students pursuing their interests in math and science.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Brief shot of a photograph of a scientist smoking in the 1970s.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Farthest: Voyager in Space is a 2017 documentary about the Voyager space program on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. For those old enough to remember Voyager 1 and 2 and the stunning photographs they sent back to Earth of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, this is a fascinating revisit to that point in time, told from the perspective of the scientists who were there. For those too young to remember it but fascinated by space exploration, this documentary shows humankind's very first efforts to see into the furthest reaches of the universe. The rewards of developing one's talents in math and science are shown in full display, both in the stories of the scientists who were there and in what they discovered from the two Voyagers. One use of "hell" is heard. A fantastic documentary for the entire family. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

THE FARTHEST: VOYAGER IN SPACE revisits the development, launch, and discoveries of the two Voyager spacecraft on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their launch. The development of the program, the launch, the early and later breathtaking photographs of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (as well as their moons), and the legendary "Voyager gold record" in which Carl Sagan attempted to convey a sense of what the human race is like for any alien race that might discover the Voyagers are all chronicled and told from the perspective of the scientists who took part. Overall, it's the story of humankind's very first effort to explore the outer reaches of the solar system and beyond.

Is It Any Good?

This is an incredible documentary of humankind's first attempts to explore the outer solar system and beyond. Told from the perspectives of the scientists who developed and oversaw the program, The Farthest: Voyager in Space includes the incredible photographs the Voyagers sent back to Earth and the profound discoveries the scientists made. The wonder these scientists express has clearly not abated 40 years later.

The late Carl Sagan is given deep tribute, both for his development of the "Voyager gold record" of human sounds and for the music placed inside both Voyagers; he's also lauded for having the philosophical vision to have Voyager 1 turn around before being out of range of Earth to take a "goodbye" picture. Sagan used this image and pointed out the tiny pixel that he informed everyone was Earth, a "pale blue dot," where "everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." It's the perfect metaphor for what so many of the scientists seem to be aware of: that their efforts were tremendous for humanity, but merely the earliest of earliest beginnings in the grand scheme of things.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about documentaries. How does The Farthest: Voyager in Space compare to other documentaries you've seen?

If you were faced with the challenge of coming up with your own "Voyager gold record," what sounds would you include on it to give any alien life forms who might discover this record a sense of Earth and the humans who live on it?

How might this documentary inspire kids interested in math and science to apply their interests in a career?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : February 26, 2017
• Cast : Carl Sagan , Ronald Reagan , Barack Obama
• Director : Emer Reynolds
• Inclusion Information : Black actors
• Studio : Crossing the Line Productions
• Genre : Documentary
• Topics : STEM , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , History , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
• Character Strengths : Curiosity
• Run time : 96 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : September 21, 2019

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JPL and the Space Age: The Footsteps of Voyager (NASA Documentary)

By NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory February 17, 2023

Illustration of the Voyager spacecraft overlaid on a picture of Neptune that was taken by Voyager 2 less than five days before the probe’s closest approach of the planet on August 25, 1989. The picture shows the “Great Dark Spot” — a storm in Neptune’s atmosphere — and the bright, light-blue smudge of clouds that accompanies the storm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to demonstrate that NASA’s new space shuttle could be used to conduct science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of space. But for missions destined for targets beyond Earth orbit the shuttle posed new engineering challenges.

One of them was Galileo, JPL ’s flagship mission to Jupiter , whose route toward the launch pad would be full of unexpected twists and turns.

At the same time, the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its triumphant Grand Tour through the outer planets. Drawing on rare film footage and the memories of the engineers and scientists who were there, this 60-minute documentary brings alive again the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune .

As scientist Carl Sagan declares in the film, those who designed, built, and operated Voyager are “heroes of human accomplishment. Their deeds will be remembered in the history books.”

While the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its triumphant Grand Tour through the outer planets, the space shuttle era was underway on Earth. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to demonstrate how NASA’s new shuttle could be used to conduct science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of space. But for launching missions to targets beyond Earth orbit, the shuttle posed engineering challenges. One mission that launched from the shuttle was Galileo, JPL’s flagship mission to Jupiter, and its route to the launch pad would be full of unexpected twists and turns.

Drawing on rare film footage as well as the memories of the engineers and scientists who were there, “The Footsteps of Voyager” recounts the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune and the efforts to deploy Galileo, a mission that would become the first to orbit an outer planet.

JPL and the Space Age Video Series

• Episode 1: The American Rocketeer
• Episode 2: Explorer 1
• Episode 3: Destination Moon
• Episode 4: The Changing Face of Mars
• Episode 5: The Stuff of Dreams
• Episode 6: The Footsteps of Voyager
• Episode 7: To the Rescue
• Episode 8: The Pathfinders
• Episode 9: The Breaking Point
• Episode 10: Saving Galileo
• Episode 11: Mission to Mars
• Episode 12: Landing on Mars
• Episode 13: Triumph at Saturn – Part I
• Episode 14: Triumph at Saturn – Part II

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To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

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Star Trek: Voyager Documentary To the Journey Shares a Tantalizing First Look

Candid interviews look to highlight the in-production look back at the landmark trek series..

Between Discovery (which just concluded its fourth season ), the ongoing second season of Picard , the hype ahead of Strange New Worlds , and the spiffy new release of 1978's Star Trek: The Motion Picture , one might start to feel a little overstuffed on all things Trek . But here’s something to change your mind.

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Trekmovie.com shared a fresh peek at To the Journey , a new documentary about Star Trek: Voyager made by the same folks who created 2018's affectionate, in-depth look at Deep Space Nine , What We Left Behind . (This is not to be confused with The Center Seat , another new Trek documentary; that one’s coming to the History Channel this fall.) This latest missive is classified as a “teaser” but is actually a robust six-minute clip.

To really appreciate that clip, you kind of have to be a Voyager fan, since nobody is identified by name and if you hadn’t seen the show you might not immediately recognize Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Robert Beltran, Robert Duncan McNeill , Ethan Phillips, or Robert Picardo—though we’re going assume you instantly know who Kate “ Captain Janeway ” Mulgrew is! (There’s also some bonus George Takei, talking about Gene Roddenberry’s influence.) But you can just tell from their contributions that To the Journey is going to be a detailed, decidedly candid, and at times gloves-off look at this chapter in Trek history.

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The film’s website says To the Journey is “the most crowdfunded documentary film to date” (you can still support it though, if you want to get your own “ Tuvok Rocks !” t-shirt or any of the other perks), having raised $1.2 million —a budget that no doubt helped the crew gather so many interviews for the project. To the Journey is still in production, but once we learn more about a release date we will let you know.

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NASA’s Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, is doing science again after problem

FILE - This illustration provided by NASA depicts Voyager 1. The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data in November 2023. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California announced this week that Voyager 1’s four scientific instruments are back in business after a technical snafu in November. (NASA via AP, File)

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DALLAS (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, is sending science data again.

Voyager 1’s four instruments are back in business after a computer problem in November, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said this week. The team first received meaningful information again from Voyager 1 in April, and recently commanded it to start studying its environment again.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is drifting through interstellar space, or the space between star systems. Before reaching this region, the spacecraft discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn’s moons. Its instruments are designed to collect information about plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles.

Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth. Its twin Voyager 2 — also in interstellar space — is more than 12 billion miles (19.31 billion kilometers) away.

This story was first published on June 14, 2024. It was updated on June 17, 2024 to correct the metric distance Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are from Earth.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

After Months of Glitches and Gradual Fixes, Voyager 1 Is Fully Operational Once Again

Currently 15 billion miles away from Earth, one of NASA’s longest-tenured spacecraft is back from the brink after a technical failure last year put its future in question

Christian Thorsberg

Daily Correspondent

After a technical malfunction late last year rendered all of its subsequent readings as useless , NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft—which has spent nearly a half-century in space—has been brought back online and is once again fully functioning.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in a press release .

Launched in 1977 and drifting some 15 billion miles away from Earth, on the outer reaches of our solar system, the satellite is both one of the world’s oldest-tenured crafts and currently the most distant—making its recovery from what was once presumed a dismal prognosis nothing short of miraculous.

Last November, the satellite began transmitting unintelligible strings of data, as opposed to the binary code it is supposed to send, back to NASA’s scientists. Initial efforts to diagnose and fix the problem were tedious. New commands took nearly a full day, 22.5 hours, to reach Voyager 1, and responses took an equal amount of time.

“Finding solutions to challenges the probes encounter often entails consulting original, decades-old documents written by engineers who didn’t anticipate the issues that are arising today,” Miles Hatfield wrote in a December NASA press release . “As a result, it takes time for the team to understand how a new command will affect the spacecraft’s operations in order to avoid unintended consequences.”

Waiting 45 hours between individual troubleshooting efforts was tedious. But incremental gains were made, and after five months of steady trial and error, the team found that Voyager 1’s problem lay in its flight data subsystem (FDS), which packages earthbound data. They pinpointed one faulty chip in particular, and were able to engineer a work-around.

In April, they enjoyed a breakthrough: a health and status report that indicated the satellite was still capable of lucid communication.

“Today was a great day for Voyager 1,” Linda Spilker, a Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said in a statement from that weekend, CNN’s Ashley Strickland reported. “We’re back in communication with the spacecraft. And we look forward to getting science data back.”

The team didn’t need to wait long. In late May, two of the spacecraft’s four scientific instruments began sending usable scientific data once again: the “bunny-eared” plasma wave subsystem , which protrudes 30 feet off the spacecraft and measures electron density, and the magnetometer instrument , which measures and analyzes the magnetic fields of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

“NASA has previously estimated that the nuclear-powered generators on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were likely to die around 2025,” the New York Times’    Orlando Mayorquín reports.

But, if they can survive until 2027, both spacecraft will reach their 50th anniversary.

Voyagers 1 and 2 are NASA’s only spacecraft to have explored outside of the sun’s heliosphere. Over the decades, they have explored the solar system’s gas giant planets and 48 moons . They also carry the Voyager Golden Records , intended to share sounds and images of Earth with alien civilizations.

“That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives,” astronomer Carl Sagan famously said in 1990 on the day Voyager 1 took the iconic “pale blue dot” image of Earth at a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun.

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Christian Thorsberg | READ MORE

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue , Sierra  magazine, Discover  magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal .

June 14, 2024

Voyager 1 Is Back! NASA Spacecraft Safely Resumes All Science Observations

NASA’s venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed normal science operations with all four functioning instruments for the first time in more than six months

By Meghan Bartels

Artist concept of Voyager 1.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s beloved Voyager 1 mission is back to normal science operations for the first time in more than six months, according to agency personnel. The announcement was made after NASA received data from all four of the spacecraft’s remaining science instruments.

The venerable spacecraft launched in 1977 and passed into interstellar space in 2012 , becoming the first human-made object to accomplish that feat. Today Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are NASA’s longest-running missions . But the title has been challenging to hold on to for spacecraft that were designed to operate for just four years. The aging probes are stuck in the deep cold of outer space, their nuclear power sources are producing ever less juice, and glitches are becoming increasingly common.

Most recently, Voyager 1 faced a communications issue that began in November 2023. “We’d gone from having a conversation with Voyager, with the 1’s and 0’s containing science data, to just a dial tone,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), of the spacecraft’s troubles in an interview with Scientific American in March.

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After more than six months of long-distance troubleshooting—Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth, and any signal takes more than 22.5 hours to travel from our planet to the spacecraft—mission personnel have finally coaxed Voyager 1 to gather and send home data with all its remaining science instruments, according to a NASA statement .

The fix required months of analysis to track the issue to a particular chip within the spacecraft’s flight data subsystem. That chip’s code couldn’t be relocated in one fell swoop, however, so mission personnel split the information chip into chunks that could be tucked into stray corners of the rest of the system’s memory. NASA began implementing the new commands in April . And in May the agency directed the aging spacecraft to resume collecting and transmitting science data. Voyager 1’s plasma-wave subsystem and magnetometer bounced back immediately. Its cosmic-ray detector and ow-energy-charged-particles instrument required additional troubleshooting, but both are now finally operating normally, according to NASA.

And although the spacecraft is back to normal operations, the work isn’t quite over. To complete spacecraft recovery from the glitch, mission personnel still need to resynchronize timekeeping software across Voyager 1’s three computers and to maintain the recorder for the spacecraft’s plasma-wave instrument, in addition to completing smaller tasks.

Taken together, Voyager 1’s four remaining instruments offer scientists a precious glimpse of interstellar space. Voyager 1 and 2 are the only two operational spacecraft to cross out of the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles that marks the influence of the sun across the solar system. This bubble grows and shrinks as the sun passes through its 11-year activity cycle . Inside the heliosphere, space is dominated by particles of the solar wind, while outside of it, cosmic rays reign.

Scientists never dreamed that Voyager 1 would be able to taste these exotic particles. Its primary science targets were Jupiter, Saturn, and the latter planet’s rings and largest moon, Titan—all of which the spacecraft flew past within a few years of its launch. But the mission has survived every challenge to continue trekking through the solar system and into interstellar space, informing scientists about its environment along the way.

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Voyager 1, After Major Malfunction, Is Back From the Brink, NASA Says

The farthest man-made object in space had been feared lost forever after a computer problem in November effectively rendered the 46-year-old probe useless.

By Orlando Mayorquín

Several months after a grave computer problem seemed to spell the end for Voyager 1, which for nearly a half century had provided data on the outer planets and the far reaches of the solar system, NASA announced on Thursday that it had restored the spacecraft to working order.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in its announcement about Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object in space.

Since the problem surfaced in November, engineers had been working to diagnose and resolve the issue, a tedious and lengthy process complicated by the fact that it takes almost two days to send and receive information from Voyager 1, which was the first man-made object ever to enter interstellar space and is currently more than 15 billion miles from Earth.

The space community had been holding its breath since last year as the prospect of fixing the aging probe appeared as dire as ever.

In February, Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager mission project manager, said the problem, which hindered Voyager 1’s ability to send coherent engineering and science data back to Earth, was “the most serious issue” the probe had faced since she began leading the mission in 2010.

Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets. NASA capitalized on a rare alignment in the solar system that enabled the probes to visit the four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — by using the gravity of each to swing to the next.

Its planetary mission a success, Voyager 1 continued its journey toward the edge of the solar system, and in 1990 it snapped a fabled photo of the Earth — a tiny speck in an infinite darkness that became known as the “pale blue dot.”

In 2012, the probe became the first to cross into interstellar space and had since, along with its twin, which followed six years later, collected data about the heliosphere, the space around the sun directly under the sun’s influence.

Perhaps as profound as the pale blue dot, each spacecraft is equipped with a golden phonograph record loaded with sound recordings and images showing humanity and life on Earth, begging to one day be discovered by another civilization.

The outlook for recovering Voyager 1 improved substantially in April , when NASA reported that it had managed to get the probe to send back “usable” data about its engineering systems and its health. That was followed by news late last month that the team had restored functionality to two of Voyager 1’s science instruments, allowing it to send back science data and continue its mission.

On Thursday, the agency announced that it had brought the remaining instruments back online and restored Voyager 1 to its normal operations.

Still, Voyager 1’s new lease on life may not last very long. NASA has previously estimated that the nuclear-powered generators on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were likely to die around 2025. But Voyager 1 has already demonstrated that it can beat the odds. Ms. Dodd hopes both Voyager spacecraft can reach the mission’s 50th anniversary in 2027.

Orlando Mayorquín is a breaking news reporter, based in New York, and a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class , a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Orlando Mayorquín

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Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

The company SpaceX achieved a key set of ambitious goals  on the fourth test flight of a vehicle that is central to Elon Musk’s vision of sending people to Mars.

Euclid, a European Space Agency telescope launched into space last summer, finally showed off what it’s capable of with a batch of breathtaking images  and early science results.

A dramatic blast from the sun  set off the highest-level geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere, making the northern lights visible around the world .

With the help of Google Cloud, scientists who hunt killer asteroids churned through hundreds of thousands of images of the night sky to reveal 27,500 overlooked space rocks in the solar system .

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is conducting normal science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023.

The team partially resolved the issue in April when they prompted the spacecraft to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft. On May 19, the mission team executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data. Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately. Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.  

The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun.

While Voyager 1 is back to conducting science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the effects of the issue. Among other tasks, engineers will resynchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s three onboard computers so they can execute commands at the right time. The team will also perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument that is sent to Earth twice per year. (Most of the Voyagers’ science data is sent directly to Earth and not recorded.)

Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is more than 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from the planet. The probes will mark 47 years of operations later this year. They are NASA’s longest-running and most-distant spacecraft. Both spacecraft flew past Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 also flew past Uranus and Neptune.

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Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

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Voyager 1 is back to life in interstellar space, but for how long?

NASA engineers have succeeded in breathing new life into Voyager 1 after the spacecraft, launched in 1977, went silent seven months ago.

NASA engineers have succeeded in breathing new life into Voyager 1 , the spacecraft launched in 1977 and once again communicating after it went silent seven months ago. But now comes another challenge: Keeping Voyager 1 scientifically useful for as long as possible as it probes a realm where no spacecraft has gone before .

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2 , are treasured at NASA not only because they have sent home astonishing images of the outer planets, but also because in their dotage, they are still doing science that can’t be readily duplicated.

They are now in interstellar space, far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth and Voyager 2 nearly 13 billion miles. Both have passed the heliopause , where the “solar wind” of particles streaming from the sun terminates.

“They’re going someplace where we have nothing, we have no information,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said. “We don’t know anything about the interstellar medium. Is it a highly charged environment? Are there a lot of dust particles out there?”

Even as the Voyagers continue their journeys, engineers and scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. are mourning the loss of Ed Stone, the scientist who guided the mission from 1972 until his retirement in 2022. Stone, a former director of JPL, died June 9 at the age of 88.

“It’s great. This is exploration. This is wonderful,” Stone told The Washington Post in 2013 when he and his colleagues determined that Voyager 1 had reached interstellar space.

Voyager 1 has four scientific instruments still operational in this extended phase of its mission, but it suddenly ceased sending intelligible data on Nov. 14. A “tiger team” of engineers at JPL spent the ensuing months identifying the problem — a malfunctioning computer chip — and restoring communication.

That laborious process is nearly complete. Data is coming from all four instruments, project scientist Linda Spilker said, though engineers are still checking to see whether data from two of the instruments is fully usable.

What no one can change, though, is the mortality of a spacecraft with a limited power supply. Voyager 1 is running on fumes, or, more precisely, on the dwindling power from the radioactive decay of plutonium.

The Voyagers have traveled so far from the sun they can’t rely on solar power and instead use a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. But an RTG doesn’t last forever. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will eventually go silent as they continue to cruise the galaxy. NASA scientists and engineers are hoping Voyager 1 can keep sending data until at least Sept. 5, 2027, the 50th anniversary of its launch.

“At some point, we’ll have to start turning off the science instruments one by one,” Spilker said. “Once we’re out of power, then we can no longer keep the spacecraft pointed at the Earth. And so [the Voyagers] will then continue on as what I like to think of as our silent ambassadors.”

In a sense, this is all a bonus because the primary mission for the two Voyagers was the exploration of the outer planets. Both visited Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 went on to Uranus and Neptune in what was known as the “Grand Tour” of the outer solar system, enabled by a rare orbital arrangement of the planets. The Voyagers delivered spectacular close-up images of the outer planets, and the mission ranks among NASA’s greatest achievements.

The gravitational slingshot from the planetary encounters sent Voyager 1 out of the elliptical plane of the solar system and did the same to Voyager 2 in a different direction.

About four years ago, Voyager 1 encountered something unexpected — a phenomenon scientists have dubbed a pressure front. Jamie Rankin, deputy project scientist, said the instruments on the spacecraft picked up a sudden change in the magnetic field of the interstellar environment, as well as a sudden increase in the density of particles.

What exactly caused this change remains unknown. But NASA scientists are eager to get all the data flowing normally again to see whether the pressure front is still detectable.

“Is the pressure front still there; what is happening with it?” Melroy said.

Voyager 1 is heading toward the constellation Ophiuchus, according to NASA, and in about 38,000 years, it will come within 1.7 light-years of an unremarkable star near the Little Dipper. But although it will have long gone silent, it does carry the equivalent of a message in a bottle: the “Golden Record.”

The record was curated by a committee led by astronomer Carl Sagan and includes greetings in 55 languages, sounds of surf, wind and thunderstorms, a whale song and music ranging from Beethoven to Chuck Berry to a Navajo chant. The Golden Record is accompanied by instructions for playing it, should the spacecraft someday come into the hands of an intelligent species interested in finding out about life on Earth.

“The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space,” Sagan said.

But that advanced spacefaring civilization might not be an alien one, NASA scientists point out. It’s conceivable that the cosmic message in a bottle could be picked up someday by a human deep-space mission eager to examine a vintage spaceship.

How Star Trek: Voyager Got Swept Up In A Newt Gingrich Controversy

In "Caretaker," the 1995 pilot episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," the show's titular ship is instantly whisked across the galaxy by an ineffably powerful space alien called the Caretaker. It seems the Caretaker was scanning the entire galaxy looking for lifeforms that it might be able to reproduce with, hoping to produce a progeny to continue its work. Many years ago, the Caretaker's technology accidentally destroyed the planet of a gentle, innocent species called the Ocampa, and he'd been using his technology to care for the survivors ever since. The Ocampa now live sheltered underground, while the Caretaker needs an heir to take over caretaking duties before he dies in less than a day.

Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) recognizes that when the Caretaker dies, some local ruffians called the Kazon will instantly plunder his technology and potentially wreak galaxy-wide havoc. Janeway chooses to destroy the Caretaker's massive home satellite rather than let it fall into the wrong hands. In doing so, however, she leaves the U.S.S. Voyager and its crew stranded 70 years from Earth. The series follows their quest to return home.

Once can see themes of self-reliance readily apparent in the story of "Caretaker." Not only will the Ocampa have to learn to live on their own without an all-powerful nanny, but the Voyager crew will have to learn to operate without a nearby Starfleet force to back them up. One might even say "the nanny state" is being killed.

The makers of "Voyager" were very aware of the political messages in "Caretaker," although they might have been misinterpreted. Indeed, in the oral history book "Captains' Logs Supplemental: The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages" edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, show co-creator Jeri Taylor noted that "Caretaker" arrived just after Newt Gingrich's draconian Contract With America.

Newt Gingrich's Contract with America

Newt Gingrich served as Speaker of the House of U.S. Representatives from 1996 until 1999, and was known for his extreme right-wing policies and weird speeches about conservative values. During the 1994 midterm elections, the American Republican Party authored a pointed legislative agenda called the Contract with America, mostly cribbing from speeches made by Ronald Reagan and using input from the evil Heritage Foundation, a shadowy right-wing think-tank. The Contract sought to make multiple sweeping bureaucratic reforms, with each of its many sections presented with a sensationalist title. Example: there was the "Take Back Our Streets Act," which added money to police and prisons.

Most notably to the makers of "Voyager," the Contract contained the Personal Responsibility Act, which sought to erode welfare. A lot of right-wing rhetoric at the time — and to this day — is critical of welfare, often stating that the government oughtn't send aid to its citizens without them having to earn it first; it's all based on a long-debunked political theory that welfare ought to be linked to an ineffable puritan work ethic. Gingrich talked a lot about how the government isn't a caretaker and that people should learn to live without aid. Self-reliance, etc.

The pilot of "Star Trek: Voyager" is about destroying a Caretaker and letting childlike citizens finally grow up on their own — to take control of their society with hard work and devotion.

Taylor noted the parallels and was a little miffed that her story of personal responsibility was co-opted by Gingrich. "I think that we were certainly cognizant of the issue of taking responsibility for oneself," she said. "It was after that the whole Newt Gingrich Contract with America issue came along, and, unfortunately, in my mind they have been lumped together."

Voyager's pilot was about maturity, not self reliance

Taylor noted that the story of "Caretaker" was about maturity. Indeed, "Caretaker" was more like a Garden of Eden story told through a sci-fi lens. The Caretaker was a coddling godlike alien who left his children overprotected. When God died, Janeway destroyed his ability to influence others. The story of "Caretaker" falls in line with a lot of the post-religious themes that appear throughout "Star Trek." Taylor liked telling a story of growth and responsibility. It was unfortunate, she felt, that Gingrich's Contract co-opted a lot of those messages:

"I think we weren't talking about anything as drastic and draconian as he seems to be; we were thinking as speaking to our children and saying you must learn to take responsibility for yourselves. If we do too much for you, this does not prepare you to go forth into the world. Now, of course, many people assume that we are part of the New Right, which is anything but the truth."

"Caretaker" was not telling a story about destroying Big Government and teaching citizens Self Reliance.

Indeed, "Star Trek" has been notoriously left wing since the start , often promoting ideas of multiculturalism and speaking out against war and military might. "Star Trek" is post-capitalist and sees no need for religion. Resources are shared openly in the Federation, with Starfleet freely delivering supplies around the galaxy as they are needed. Gene Roddenberry himself was an incredibly left-leaning fellow and had many very liberal ideas about equality within society. Some might see some right-leaning imagery in the militarily-constructed Starfleet, but "Star Trek" never promoted any sense of class-like hierarchy.

If Janeway's ending speech about personal responsibility sounds Gingrichian, know that Jeri Taylor didn't write it that way. She was talking about maturity, not government oversight.